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Finishing Touches! Last Sunday brought us another dev blog post by the developers. Most notably, this article reveals the release date for the upcoming beta version of the new update: Next week! Get ready, because we will of course be part of the testing. Other than that, there is little in the way of brand new stuff and more of the old 'We are still working hard on everything', but a few snippets of previously unknown can be extracted. For one, a look one of the more colourful prussian regiments - The Riflemen (likely Silesian jaegers)! Also, further details about destruction and interactables. Doors will soon be able to open and close, as well as be smashed down by melee attacks (once out of beta). For siege-type game modes, some doors may only be opened if your faction controls the nearby capture point. We may also still look forward to a variety of new maps across multiple game modes.Check out the entire post here!

Sunday Feedback As we first mentioned a few weeks back, we currently participate in a community-hosted event for our Sunday Linebattles as opposed to hosting it ourselves. We can unfortunately not give you further information regarding the permanency of this circumstance, but for however long this should last, we may as well make the most of it. To this end, we kindly ask for your feedback on the current rule set. Please post your suggestions, gripes or any sort of comment in this thread by Jamster. Let us do our best to try and help improve this event not just for ourselves, but for all the participants!

And these are your events for this week: Tuesday Training is TONIGHT at 20:00 CEST. The Thursday Event is at 20:00 CEST. We may be forming a skirmisher detachment for the Friday Spanish Linebattle, keep your eyes on our Steam announcements for this. The Saturday Public Linebattle is at 20:00 CEST and the Sunday Linebattle happens at 20:00 CEST. Your faithful Minden News™ staff bids you adieu for another week. Leave your thoughts below and then kindly head over to the Sunday feedback thread!

History Lesson! Whether you have been with us for a long time of you only recently joined up, you may or may not have heard little bits of history about the actual British regiment we chose to be our namesake. One name you will hear being mentioned a lot is Minden, though this is not a name but rather a city. A humble city at that, with just over 80.000 inhabitants and situated west of Hanover, Germany. In 1759 however, its outskirts became a battlefield for one of the most decisive clashes of the Seven Years' War. This war saw the alliance of Great Britain, including Portugal, Prussia and Hanover fight against the then Kingdom of France under Louis XV, with Austria, Russia, Spain and Sweden on their side. Like many other wars involving European great powers, the Seven Years' War was caused by rising tensions over territorial claims and the following cascade of alliances. Much of this would later be mirrored in the Napoleonic Wars. Come, and stay for a while we tell you the Story of Minden.The Battle of Minden took place during the height of this conflict, following a repeated back-and-forth struggle for Hanover. The engagement ended in a victory for Great Britain and their German allies, which was a surprising result for all sides. Outnumbered in manpower and faced with the formidable threat of the French cavalry on the open field, Team Anglo-Germany had to be cautious. Indeed, the French made good use of their cavalry, launching it into continuous charges while protecting it in the crossfire of their own artillery.The battle was not going well for the Brits and they signaled for retreat, though this order was famously mistaken for a fire and advance straight into the French horsemen. The British brigade, including the 51st marched onward, not fazed by musket or cannon fire, pausing only to deliver volleys of their own. The fact that morale did not break despite the fierce barrage took the French by surprise and caused them to rout from the battlefield. The iron will and guts displayed by the regiments who were part of the fearless advance immortalised them within history. After the battle, they took the title of Minden to commemorate their valour.Minden Day is celebrated by the successors of these historical regiments to this day, every year on August 1st - The day of the Battle of Minden. Soldiers wear roses in their hats to pay homage to the soldiers who picked roses in the Dutch and German lowlands that reminded them of home and wore them on their shakos, or so the story goes.

Well, after that trip to memory lane, let us take a look at this week's going-ons. As per usual, we have events on Thursday, Saturday and Sunday at 20:00 CEST, with possibly further regional events such as the Friday Linebattle. Make sure you are part of our Steam Community group, where you will receive timely notifications on any and all events happening! Thank you very much indeed for reading another issue of the Minden News™, this time with fewer news and more educational content! If you would like to hear the Minden tale retold authentically, just ask Stalker for story time!

Anticipation Kills! On May 6th, another Holdfast dev blog went live, filled to the brim with exciting new content for the upcoming patch. The upgraded game engine will allow for greater flexibility when tweaking highly sensitive mechanics such as the melee combat. Making sure that melee is much more responsive and intuitive still remains a top priority for the developers. While progress on the latest and upcoming patches has been slow, this allows the developers to include a variety of content with each patch, as opposed to releasing diminutive tweaks on a weekly basis. Other things you can look forward to include a sleek UI overhaul including the new spawn screen, which will eventually allow you to customise your soldier's loadout to some degree. Multiple new maps will soon be playable and these will include a variety of brand new assets - Buildings, landmarks and such. And speaking of buildings, more destruction will be possible, too. Much like the breaching points of the coastal fortifications, other buildings on different game modes are said to eventually be destructible, at least partially.Lastly, the Prussians will be making their debut on the battlefields of Holdfast! While they are (literally) not the most colourful of factions, they will be sure to bring some much needed variety into the game and will, most assuredly, make us hungry for even more factions to be added in the future. Check out the details of all the new content in the dev blog!As of yet, we cannot give you any specific date for when the update will go live, but like before you can expect a beta test of the new balance changes to take place. We will of course be participating in this as best we can.

Sunday Reflections. Many of us felt some slight disappointment after participating in last week's Sunday Linebattle. We already addressed some of your concerns immediately after the event, but we would like to give a brief statement on our opinions. We realise that this event was certainly not the best showcase for us performance-wise. This was to no fault of any of you. Individually, you did well and for the most part, executed commands in the professional manner we have become accustomed to. What made last week different from our usual Sunday events was the low amount of sign-ups by other events, forcing us to instead participate in a different event. This presented us with some unplanned difficulties - A high ping and a rule set quite different to what we are used to. Needless to say, we will do our best to ensure that the events going forward are as enjoyable for you as they have been before, but we do depend largely on the rest of the community for this.

Reminding you to not miss tonight's Tuesday Training at 20:00 CEST. The Thursday Event, or alternatively the Thursday Training is at 20:00 CEST. The Saturday Public Linebattle is at 20:00 CEST and the Sunday Linebattle happens at 20:00 CEST. This has been this week's issue of the Minden News™, straight from the press! Let us know which faction you are looking forward to the most after Prussia!

May Day! Rejoice! Not only are we celebrating the 20th issue of the Minden News™, it is also the first of May. More commonly known as 'Labour Day', this is a holiday for most of the world, regardless of culture or religion. The first of May is one of two Christian feasting days honouring St Joseph the Worker, also known as Jesus' legal daddy. Communist activists of the late 19th century used the occasion to push for better working conditions and now, almost every country imaginable gives its workers a day off.For much of Europe, the first of May holds further significance, reaching back much farther than workers' unions or even Christianity. It was traditionally the first day of summer which for Celtic, Gaelic and Germanic pagans was reason enough to party hard in order to finally drive out the winter (and evil spirits, while they were at it). Even following the Christianisation of Europe, much of the holiday's spiritual roots can still be found in the many ways people celebrate it to this day. Many countries light bonfires, erect may poles and dance throughout the night of April 30th. Others share baskets of sweets with their neighbours or give to the poor. Almost all get well and truly smashed. So, whether you are celebrating Labour Day, Walpurgis Night, Beltane or however you should call it, we hope you have a great day. Unless you're British, of course, in which case you will get your bank holiday next Monday because screw traditions.

To the Water Park! Rather, to the war-torn, hostile and violent version of a water park - Coastal Siege! This Thursday at 20:00 CEST, we will once again take part in an event, following our naval success of last week's sea battle.

Commendation! We would like to offer our belated congratulations to Private BurdTurgerler, the newest recipient of the Cross of Valour, 3rd Class! We were impressed by your performance during the Sunday Linebattle from two weeks past and if you impress us, we award you virtual medals. Everybody wins! But in all honesty, well done and keep it up.

Here are the upcoming events for this week: Tonight at 20:00 CEST, join us for Tuesday Training. The Thursday Event this week will be a Coastal Siege and happens at 20:00 CEST. The Saturday Public Linebattle is at 20:00 CEST and the Sunday Linebattle happens at 20:00 CEST. We hope you enjoyed the little excursion into the origins of the May Day celebrations. What cooky traditions do people observe where you're from? Let us know!